Mountain Manhattan_Mountain Man in the Big City

by Frankie Love

  “Someone like what?” I ask, inhaling as he pushes my cardigan back, leaning over to kiss my expose shoulders, my thin camisole riding up my hips.

  “My Muse.”

  “Is that really what I am to you?”

  “Yes.”

  I bite my bottom lip feeling more beautiful than I’ve ever felt, as he tugs off my panties, pushes apart my thighs, and dips his bearded face low. My pussy instantly awakens as he begins to kiss me, tickling me as he does.

  “That feels incredible,” I groan as he licks me up and down. “Dammit, Ford, you have no idea.”

  My eyes close and I thread my fingers through his thick hair, relishing his attention. He sucks my tender clit as it throbs for him. Every inch of me is begging for more. More of him.

  It’s been too long. Why did I ever send him away? Under his gaze, I feel like I am exactly where I belong. My nipples are hard, and I clench my thighs together in anticipation of what is sure to come.

  “Behave yourself,” he teases, his firm hand on my thighs, keeping them where he wants them. I love how in control Ford always is and even though so much of what I know about him is on the surface, the glimpses he has shown me of what lies beneath, has cracked my heart in ways I didn’t expect. He’s this wounded artist with a broken past, and yet I feel safe with him. Which is why I’m lying here now, in the middle of nowhere with him, trusting him with so damn much.

  My back arches as he presses a finger inside of me, bringing me close the place I am so desperate to go.

  “I need you in me,” I pant, opening my eyes so I can see this mountain man for what he is at this moment. Mine.

  “Fuck, Mia, you’re so wet.”

  I nod, pulling off my tank top, unhooking my bra. Silently begging him to strip to nothing himself, to show me his cock, to fill me with it. I need him. So, fucking badly.

  He knows. He unbuttons his flannel… the only thing I’ve ever seen him in beside a suit and tie. He tugs off his white tee-shirt and I reach for his jeans. Unzipping the fly, shoving them down. There is no time to waste when the moment is here — now — asking us to come closer.

  “Oh, God, Mia,” he groans as his cock springs free. Hard and thick and so damn perfect. I hold him in my hands. He’s so warm and velvety smooth. I lean back against the pillow. The satiny fur of the bearskin rug is ridiculously luxurious but really, everything about his cabin is decadent.

  Everything about this weekend is indulgent. Divine.

  I lead him closer to me, my body opening for him; for us.

  He fills me up, my body remembering him the moment he is inside me. I moan desperately, as he thrusts gently against me. My legs wrap around him as he laces his fingers with mine, pulling our hands above my head. My tits bounce as we fuck, my hair a messy tangle and his eyes locked on mine the entire time.

  My breath catches and my heart races and the worry that I’ve carried with me every day since Mom died, seems to slip away. Right now, there is nothing but this moment. His come rushes inside of me, his body covers mine.

  Manhattan feels a million miles away as an orgasm spreads through me.

  As this mountain man marks me as his own.

  23

  Ford

  Later that night, we walk around the property, her eyes taking in everything with an excitement I was hoping to see. I want to be inspired by her. It feels so good to stretch my legs in a place that is familiar.

  We slept off the jet-lag and shared a simple dinner of pasta and jarred sauce. I realized after we woke up, we didn’t have any fresh groceries. We’d have to fix that in the morning.

  Now, I give her the tour she’s asking for and with wine glasses in hand, I lead the way.

  “It’s all so beautiful out here.” She inhales. “But what’s that smell?”

  I furrow my brow. “Uh, fresh jasmine? Pine trees?”

  “No. It not that. It’s… earthier. Damp.” She crosses an unpaved path, holding onto my hand.

  “I think you’re smelling dirt, Mia.”

  She snorts, laughing hard. “See, I’m not used to the wilderness. I walk on concrete, not piles of sod.”

  I kiss her neck, holding her close. “You’re cute, you know that.”

  She shakes her head, looking up at me. “You’re not bad yourself, Ford Thatcher.” We keep walking and finally, I lead her to the most special place on the property.

  “You made that, too?” she asks, pointing to a large metal gazebo in the center of the yard, off in the distance

  “Yeah, it was actually good practice. I have incorporated a lot of those elements In the Central Park piece.” Metal roses climb the arches; leaves and vines circling the frame.

  “Well, it looks perfect here. With the benches and the view of the mountains. It’s gorgeous.”

  “You haven’t noticed the best part,” I tell her, pointing to the in-ground hot tub, river rock inlaid all around it.

  “This is insane,” she says breathlessly. “You’re insane. I can’t even imagine with you, Ford.”

  “Is that a compliment?”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Um, yes. It most certainly is. I mean, this cabin is not what I expected. And the property, it stretches forever.”

  “So, what did you expect?” I ask, looking down at her.

  She shakes her head. “I don’t know… something simple, something smaller.”

  I frown, running a hand over my jaw.

  “What is it?” she asks, taking my hand in hers.

  “Look, I didn’t do anything to deserve all of this. Truth is,” I start and stop. Getting choked up by the truth. “I have the money for this place because I won a lawsuit, so yeah, the place is amazing but … it came at a big fucking cost.”

  She studies me, understanding. “Your son?” she asks in a whisper.

  I cough, not wanting to look her in the eyes. “I didn’t bring you here to bring up the past.”

  “I don’t need to know everything… but I want to understand you.”

  “I keep a lot of that shit buried for a reason. It’s sad as fuck, Mia.”

  “I get that,” she says. “And of course, you don’t owe me your story but you confuse me. You tell me you had a son, but then don’t tell me anymore. You bring me all the way to Colorado, but resist explaining your life to me.”

  I came home this weekend to clear my head, not get bogged down with painful memories. I give her a half-smile. “Can’t we just fuck in the hot tub and get drunk?”

  She doesn’t find my suggestion funny.

  “No, Ford,” she huffs, turning to sit on the bench. “I like sleeping with you. A lot. God. Probably too much. But Ford, I’m not just a fuck-buddy.” She takes a sip of the red wine, looking off into the distance. Then she turns to me, her expression filled with tenderness. “This is more than that. At least, it feels like that on my end.”

  Clenching my jaw, I take a seat next to her on the bench. “I think a part of me wanted to bring you here, Mia, so I would be forced to be real with you. But it’s hard, you know?”

  “I know.” Mia licks her pink lips. “You know my whole story, but if you can’t trust me with yours it makes me wonder what I’m here for. I don’t want some rich dude sweeping into my life and Christian Grey-ing me off my feet. There isn’t dignity in that. I don’t want a love story that is made up between the pages of a book. I want something real or nothing at all.”

  “You have enough shit to deal with, Mia. Do you want to take mine on too?”

  “That’s not how it works, Ford. A relationship is give-and-take. Push and pull. It can’t be one-sided, and it can’t be based on sex.”

  I pull back, her words scaring me a little. “And you want a relationship with me?”

  She flings her hands in the air. Mia is not timid or shy. She says it like it is and I love that about her. It’s impressive and beautiful and fucking brave.

  It’s also pretty damn scary. I’ve been holding back for so many years. Then I met her, and I felt something
real for the first time in so damn long.

  “I don’t know what I want with you,” she says honestly. “How could I, when I only know a sliver of your life?” She swallows, offering me the slightest smile. “Who knows,” she says with a smirk, “you could tell me your story and freak me out. I could find out you have a creepy clown collection or an addiction to Justin Bieber.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “And those would be deal breakers?”

  She smacks me playfully. “Shut up. You know what I mean. I can’t know what I want if I don’t know you. And right now, it’s too one-sided.”

  “Fair enough. What do you want to know?”

  She looks at the hot tub. “Did you build this?”

  “That’s what you are interested in? Shit woman, I would have told you that and avoided this fight.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I’m trying to lighten the mood.”

  I brush her hair behind her shoulders, looking into her green eyes.

  She dips her chin and lifts her eyes. They are soulful and wanting. “I want to know you, Ford. Especially if we’re staying here together for a few more nights. I don’t think my body could take being so close and yet have your heart so far away.”

  My cock hardens as I look at this woman in my arms. No risk, no reward. Isn’t that what they say?

  “I built it,” I tell her gruffly, knowing I am on the precipice of giving this woman my heart. I’m an all or nothing kind of man. She wants to go all in with me, then that’s good because I want to too. “Sanded the stones, poured the cement. Put in the heating pump with my own two hands.”

  “Wow.” She smiles, wrapping an arm around my neck. “You really are a mountain man.”

  “You trying to make me blush?”

  “Among other things,” she teases, pulling my mouth to hers.

  We kiss as the sun is setting before us; the pinks and purple skin stretching forever across the horizon. Her lips are soft and even if the words we exchanged had heat in them, they also held a hell of a lot of truth.

  Mia is the kind of woman that makes a man forget himself. A woman a man could get lost in. She is strong and spirited, but also tender in all the right ways. She kisses with gentleness, with hope. She kisses me, and I can imagine the two of us sitting on this bench in twenty years’ time.

  Which is fucking nuts. I don’t want a woman. A marriage. A wife. I don’t want complications. I don’t want a reason to be hurt again.

  Or, at least I didn’t, until Mia walked into my life.

  24

  Ford

  We pull apart, catching our breath. “Can I test out this man-made hot tub?” she asks, already standing and stripping off her clothes, not waiting for an answer. Or rather, she already knows I will tell her it is perfectly fine with me to watch her strut around the great outdoors in her birthday suit.

  Damn, her tight little body is a sight to behold. All I want right now, is to get in that water with her, pull her onto my lap and never let her go. I reach for the switch and the jets turn on, the surface of the water bubbling in seconds.

  I slip off my clothes and step into the warm pool of water. Reaching for Mia’s hand, I help her in.

  “Thanks,” she says, gasping a little as the water hits her bare skin. “Oh, wow. This feels amazing. How did it heat so fast?”

  I shrug, leaning my back against one of the jets. “Magic.”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it with you. You are a little bit out of this world, Ford. A talented artist, a rugged outdoorsman. You save people’s lives and built a home with your own two hands. It’s a little intimidating.”

  I shake my head, her words feeling much too generous.

  “I have few other attributes to add to the list. Not as complimentary.”

  “Oh yeah? Let me guess, you leave dirty socks on the floor and forget your grandma’s birthday.”

  I pull back, frowning. “I’d never miss Nana’s birthday.”

  She laughs. “See, you are the complete package. It makes me wonder what I’m even doing here with you.”

  She sits opposite me in the circular tub, the water covering her breasts. The night sky is darkening, and stars begin to light her face. She looks like a goddess out here, from another fucking planet entirely.

  “I’m a college dropout,” she says. “No job, no house. I’m a total mess, Ford. And you… you have it all figured out. It’s like we live in two different worlds.”

  “That’s a flattering filter on this picture you have of me,” I tell her. “And maybe it looks like that from the outside, but for most of my adult life, I’ve been nothing but a train wreck. And if you were to ask my parents… Shit, they rather have a thoughtful, selfless daughter like you, over me any day. I think Nana is the only one in the family who tolerates me.”

  “What did you do to piss everyone else off?” she asks gently.

  “What didn’t I do?” I exhale. “I told you my son died. Uh, it was pretty bad, Mia. He uh, he was only five. And I was his sole guardian. His mother was never in the picture. She was only in town long enough to get pregnant and then left, leaving me with Cedric.” I pause, picturing the boy who had a face that matched my own, a twinkle in his eye that lit up every room he entered. “That was his name,” I say, choking up. “Cedric.”

  “It’s a good name,” she says her eyes finding mine. The thing about Mia is, she doesn’t look at me with pity. She looks at me with understanding. With so much sincerity it makes my chest ache - hell, not my chest - my fucking heart. This woman sees me, and it makes me want to be a better man. Her man.

  “Anyways, uh, we had a place not too far from here, on this same plot of land. Our cabin was probably more like the one you were picturing. Two bedrooms, simple. Anyways, he uh, wandered off. Fell in a well.”

  “Oh, my god.” Mia’s eyes fill with tears, and she moves beside me, reaching for my hand.

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t fatal. Thank fucking God, right? It’s hard enough living with the fact I let him out of my sight long enough for him to break his legs and get a serious concussion, but it could have been so much worse.”

  “So how did he…”

  “The hospital fucked things up. They basically induced a coma, they over-medicated him, and his body seized up. It went from zero to one hundred so damn fast. Next thing you know it was code red and they were attempting resuscitation and…” I stop talking because my eyes are clouded with tears. Hell, I’m falling apart on Mia, but she pulls me close, resting my head on her chest.

  “He didn’t make it through the hour,” I finish. “That morning we had waffles and bacon, he used half a bottle of syrup on that waffle and I remember getting so irritated with him. But now what I wouldn’t give for breakfast with my boy again.”

  I sit up, squaring my shoulders with Mia’s. “I pushed everyone away after that. My parents, friends, everyone. I built this house and my workshop and started making the sculptures. It was like, the one thing I knew I could control. I could work the metal and make it exactly what I wanted and life was never that generous.

  “Life can be a fucking bitch. You know that as well as me, Mia. And hell, maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you. You’ve been through shit — are still going through shit — but somehow you smile. You make me smile. You’re stronger than I’ve ever been. I fell apart and am only now remembering to live.”

  “I told you earlier,” she says softly. “I don’t have a choice. I have to be strong for Tallie and Matty.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Mia. You’re making a choice every damn day. Letting go of what you want for other people.”

  “Not people. My family.”

  “They are so lucky to have you,” I tell her, and I mean it with every fiber of my being.

  “This shouldn’t be about me,” she says, running a hand through my hair. “This is about you tonight.”

  She pulls herself into my lap, her eyes full of tears, but they are locked on mine.

  “Well, now you know I’m not perfect,�
�� I tell her. “I’m fucking flawed.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  I nod, aching with need for her, feeling so vulnerable, so damn seen.

  Knowing Mia is more than my muse.

  She’s the woman I am falling in love with.

  25

  Mia

  Our wet and naked bodies move as one. I straddle him, and his thickness fills me, making me gasp with pleasure as he holds my hips in place, thrusting deep into my core, taking what we both need.

  “Oh, God,” he growls as his cock is buried deeper still inside of me. “You feel so fucking good.”

  I moan, grinding against him, wanting more, wanting everything. He massages my breasts, pulling them to his mouth, sucking my tits just the way they ache for.

  His story hit me hard, my heart broke for him—breaks for him. Ford may think he is flawed, but in my eyes, he is a rock, a fortress. A man who is picking up the pieces.

  He’s been through so damn much and I wish I could make it all better, and for tonight at least, I can.

  I can give him my body and help him forget the pain that he clearly carries everywhere he goes.

  Losing a son… it’s impossible to imagine the depth of his pain, and of course, he pushes people away. The world has let him down.

  It’s let me down too.

  “I’m so close,” I moan, wrapping my arms around him, clinging to the man that he is. “Oh, Ford,” I cry as an orgasm crashes into me. He is right there with me, his release filling me up, leaving me panting for breath. His mouth is on mine, kissing me into submission, his tongue running along my own, his lips taking what they want. My cries are replaced with a never-ending need for more.

  More of him.

  He lifts me from the hot tub, sweat on our faces, and he drags me to the grass, putting his body on top of mine and filling me once more with his thick shaft. His cock slams into me and my fingers dig into his back.

  “Fuck, Mia,” he groans, his hand on my cheek as we fuck. My pussy begs for more. Wanting it deeper, faster. He knows what I want and he gives it to me. His strong chest above me and his frame so solid and sure. I love that he knows who he is now. He’s been through enough to know without a shadow of a doubt.